[Debate] Stratfor on the Neither-Liberal-nor-Democratic Arab Spring

[Ran Greenstein]

Actually, most of the left in Europe and the Third World (perhaps not
in the US) was very enthusiastic about the Iranian Revolution,
initially. But, the extent of repression unleashed by the new regime,
with tens of thousands of detentions and executions of liberal and
progressive activists, cooled down the fervour within a short period
of time. And yet, the Khatami regime received very good press in the
West (and among the European liberal-left), but most of it dissipated
with Ahmedinejad's rise to power. For some reason a regime
perpetrating mass violence against students and dissidents failed to
inspire much respect for its progressive credentials

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 6:34 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 22, 2011, at 12:10 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>> I find it difficult to understand those leftists who hate the Islamic
>> Republic of Iran and yet love the Libyan rebels.
>
> I don't know who "loves" the Libyan rebels. I realize that your propagandizing requires you to slot people into neat categories, but those leftists who had kind things to say about the upsurge in Libya were mostly hoping to get rid of that excrescence Qaddafi, not greet them as the forerunners of a new world.
>
> Doug
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-- 
Ran Greenstein
Johannesburg, South Africa